Twins were born.
I posted on X (Formerly Twitter) like this.
So many people liked and replied to this post and I thought I was the happiest person in the world.
Meanwhile, I have something I want to ask you. “Please pray with me.”
Actually, the older brother has a congenital defect that could be a matter of life and death and I already knew that he had it when I posted this.
TGA II, cleft lips and palate are the names of the defects.
What is TGA II, anyway?
TGA stands for “Transposition of the Great Artery” in English and, literally, the arteries that connect the heart and lungs are not properly located.
Heart has four chambers: right ventricle, right atrium, left ventricle and left atrium. right ventricle and right atrium are connected and as are the left ventricle and left atrium. And normally the arteries connecting the lungs and the heart are crossed. In the normal heart, the “left” ventricle is connected to the “right” lung, and “right” ventricle is connected to the “left” lung. However, when they are not crossed, this condition is called TGA.
Usually, there’s a wall between the right ventricle and the left ventricle but when it’s missing, this is referred to as “II” in the condition’s name.”
Without medical intervention, a child is likely to die within 2 months, but the doctor said it is treatable.
Except for ONE situation. (I’ll talk about the details of the situation later.)
What is Cleft lip and palate?
Literally, lips and palates are cleft. It can cause other malformations as was the case with my child, who did not have one of his nostrils.
Doctor said it could be fixed fairly easily so I was relieved.
But it can often be associated with other defects related to the heart and lungs and that was the case for my kid, too. Thus, my wife and I sent him to the other hospital by ambulance right after he was born.
What is going to happen?
Now, it’s time to talk about the situation I mentioned earlier. When
That is the “Trisomy Disorder,” especially trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) or trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).
I heard that being diagnosed with trisomy 21 is somewhat better because the severity of trisomy increases as the number gets lower. (Human body has 22 pairs(44) + XY(2)=46 chromosomes)
Testing process is similar to a regular blood test and we will know the result within a week. And when it is indeed the trisomy 13 or the trisomy 18, the doctor said he would not be able to help him.
On the other hand, when it is none of the trisomy mentioned above, the surgery’s success rate is reasonably good, so the survival rate of my child will be much higher. (But there are risks of other defects or diseases co-occurring.)
Also, this test will check our DNA, which means it could reveal various factors including “which parent have contributed to this condition.” As a result, we had to fill out a consent form.
We signed the consent form because we knew we were not a family that would consider divorce based on the result. Moreover, we had no choice but to help him.
The only thing I can do for now is to wish that he does not have trisomy 13 or 18.
And even if that worst case scenario is our reality, I would like to call his name when I’m at the hospital supporting him. Therefore, we would like to give him a name soon.
Do your best, my yet-to-be-named son.
Either way, by writing this blog, I can confirm that he became my family member today. That is why I decided to write this here.
The best thing is that the country will pay for the surgery mentioned above.
I have never thanked Japan more than today.
Thank you for reading.
Please pray with me.
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